During his post-match duties, speaking to DAZN (via @aritrabvb1909) and Archie Rhind-Tutt Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic believes that his team deserved a penalty in their 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday evening.
In a long discussion with pundit Michael Ballack, Terzic said: “I made my opinion clear about the penalty situation with Karim Adeyemi. And this is not the first time – especially with Karim. It’s about finding a healthy balance there, and when you see what is whistled in other stadiums…But here, you can clearly see the contact on the shin, and when we have to hear things that have nothing to do with this incident but affect the match evaluation, then there is no room for two opinions for me. That is a clear contact, a clear penalty. We would have had a great opportunity to make it 2-0. That was taken away from us in that situation, and I told the referee that at that moment.”
Terzic then added: “Wasn’t there too little contact in the penalty yesterday against Stuttgart? Our penalty, which we got against us in Stuttgart with Gregor Kobel, wasn’t the contact too little? We were told there was clear contact, and we have to give that. Here, we are told that I don’t even have to look at it because I’m sure it’s too little. And that’s the point. We discuss the VAR every week. We discuss clear wrong decisions, about handball, foul play, and so on. And today, it’s too little. But what penalties have we received? In Frankfurt, when Marius Wolf got the ball shot against his arm? Wasn’t that too little? And that’s what completely infuriates me now. It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. The penalties we get against us – whether nationally or internationally – are not proportionate to what happened today and what happened last year in Bochum – and it’s particularly about Karim Adeyemi. It’s always about Karim Adeyemi, who is so agile, so fast. He dribbles into the situation at 30 km/h, and then this contact is enough. And that’s my clear opinion, and that’s why I don’t want to, and I can’t defend the referee today in any way. The clear line is missing about what is a penalty and what is not. We discuss the VAR every time. Now we have it. Who used it today? Who? No one. This situation is a crucial one. We didn’t have many opportunities, but the clearest. That is the clearest penalty today, and we had the clearest chance through Niclas Füllkrug. They had control. Everything good and fine. But then we have to listen to what the referees tell us, why, how… And have you talked about the yellow-red card for Palacios in the midfield? You’ve also skipped over that! A few minutes earlier, he got a yellow at the corner flag, and then we launch a counter. And then it says, we give the advantage, and if we give it, then it’s not a yellow. You’ve played football for a long time, Michael, and you know the job. How often have you experienced that a yellow is given after a scene in hindsight? And now we get an advantage in the midfield, where we still have to beat three opponents, and it’s not a clear goal chance. And then we’re told, that’s not a yellow. I’m told I misunderstood the rule. Okay, then the rule may be like that. But then the rule is simply…”
The Dortmund coach would then go into a back-and-forth with the former Leverkusen midfielder and end his rant with: “It’s explicitly about Karim. He frequently has these situations. Once he got into the situation of falling too early. He got a yellow because he wanted to deceive something, which is not okay. We discussed that. But since then, he just always gets such situations called against him – and not only him but us. And that’s why I want to protect my player because he did really well in this situation. He accelerated properly between two people. That is very difficult to defend. And that is the referee’s reaction. That’s what we have the VAR for. Then look at it and do something about it, and then tell me that the contact is not enough. But that is simply the wrong decision in this situation. I stick to that. And I never played in Leverkusen.”
What the Dortmund coach failed to recognise during his discussion is that earlier in the game Leverkusen had a similar situation which, unlike the Karim Adeyemi penalty claim, was checked by VAR and not given. If Terzic believes that Dortmund deserved a penalty during this game, then so did Leverkusen.
The draw with Leverkusen sees Dortmund stay fifth in the Bundesliga one point behind RB Leipzig in fourth. Their next game is away at VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday. The two already faced each other earlier in the season when Dortmund were thoroughly played off the park by VfB in a 2-1 loss.
GGFN | Jack Meenan